[RESOLVED] Windows 95 Protection Error

Now I know you have probably been hit with thousands of people getting this problem, but I would like to know how it is caused? I find that it usually occurs after installing software of some kind, and this time it is no exception (Office 97) Ok heres where things start to get tricky. Usually uninstalling the software in safe mode fixes it (At least it has for me) but in the case of Office 97 I cant uninstall it because it requires the CD to be in the drive, which is not accessable in Safe mode. I have tried editing startup files to get the CDROM to go, but Safe mode does not recognise it, and all other options from the Windows startup menu cause the protection error. Is there any way I can gain control of the CDROM drive in safe mode? Thanks.

Boot to a command prompt only. If a real mode CD driver is installed great. If not install one then at the c:\ prompt type:
WIN /D:M this way you are sure a real mode driver loded before going to the windows interface.

I have found that a lot of Protection errors are caused by the installation of busmaster drivers. This is a notorious problem with SoundBlaster AWE64 cards. Check that the Midid settings for your card are not set to port 620 as this is th eaddress that the busmaster drivers use. Change it to 640 if they are on 620.

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Who got game???? I know I do!!!!!!!

visit me @ http://www.ace-computers.co.uk

I'll tell you, i couldn't count how many win pro errors i fix a year by renaming SMARTDRV.EXE in the windows/system directory to SMARTDRV.OLD or maybe even SMARTDRV_SUCKS.OLD...

don't know why, but it works...

Another cause of these errors that I fought with this week was AMD K6-2 CPUs with Win95. I've heard about some of you folks having to install the AMD K6 update to Win95, but I never caught what the exact symptom was. I went to Microsoft support where I found that the K6-2 350 will cause intermittent protection errors and faster K6-2s are worse. Apparently this problem only affects Win95 and the fix only works with B-version or later.

Steve

After playing around with the machine yesterday, I just reformatted it and started again ... only to encounter the same protection error. First up I tried the easy solution of renaming smartdrv.exe (It sounded good RP8, but didnt work for me). Next up I tried uninstalling Office 97 (thanks for the CD Driver info bdunn) Office uninstalled fine but I still had the protection error. Ok moving along to the Busmaster solution, after checking the device manager, I noticed there is an Intel 82371SB PCI Bus Master IDE controller installed, as well as the primary and secondary IDE controllers. The machine doesnt have a sound card in it at all, so I am not sure what it could be conflicting with. Removing the Bus master from the device manager stopped the protection error from appearing, but now the PC locks up on the Windows Splash screen, hitting esc reveals a blank screen with a flashing cursor. The machine is a Pentium 200 so the AMD patch doesnt apply stevet, but keep the ideas coming guys, thanks.

Okay, there is an inf update from Intels web site for the 82xxxxxxx whatever. I think it's like version 3.3.3.0 or something like that. I'd download and run that, and I'd also locate the most recent versions of drivers you'll be using.

I had ran into this problem one other time at a bank, they were switching out a bunch of NE2000 cards with D-Link 530TXs on nothing but Compaq Deskpro 2000s. Most of the time I didn't have any problems, a few minor problems. I ran into about 3 win pro errors and smartdrv.exe worked for me, but them the last one I ran into it didn't work. What I had to do was end up downloading new drivers update drivers from D-Links website and intalling them and it worked after that. D-Link I don't think has ever sent working drivers with there cards...

Firstly, I haven't tried your theory out yet RP8 because Intel's Website sucks and I cant find stuff all. But I think I may have discovered the problem ... maybe. I formatted the PC again today, and noticed it tried to recover lost alloction units, after running a complete scandisk it found a bad cluster. Originally this PC had an older version of Windows 95 installed which didnt like hard disks over 2 GB and since the machine had a 2.5 GB drive it had to be partitioned accordingly. Now I am using a new version of Windows 95 (The latest release before Windows 98 came out) It formats the drive as a complete 2.5 GB. My question is, could this partitioning affect Windows at all having a bad cluster on the disk, or would this information be completely irrelevant when it comes to protection errors? Any thoughts people, thanks?

if you want the updated inf drivers, do a serach on the advanced search @ Windrivers.com for Intel & you will find them!!!!

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Who got game???? I know I do!!!!!!!

visit me @ http://www.ace-computers.co.uk

you got it.... that may very well be your problem. Now that the sectors are marked, windows will not try to use them again..(for virtual memory, and stuff. That happened to a guy at work the other day. His machine was locking up, and he had a pile of files turn into garbage. I asked him over and over if he had scanned his disk, and he said yes. I scanned it, and it mark 1 bad cluster. It was enough to really throw windows off, and garbage a bunch of his files.....

Alicia